I DIRECTED A DANCE BATTLE!

Last night was Night 1 of a three-night Pioneer Electronics commercial shoot that I'm helping out on for my very talented buddy Zack Mathers.   Part of the commercial is highlighting a new Pioneer product called STEEZ (steeze is a street term that is a combination of style and ease... "What's your steeze?" is like "What's your deal?  What's your thing?")

The product is a boombox designed specifically for dancers -- you can adjust the tempo, pick specific BPMs (beats per minute) without affecting the pitch of the song.  For anyone who has ever learned or taught a dance routine - you know that this is awesome... You can play back a routine at half speed to learn it clean and then pick up the BPMs as you get it down.   I heart this thing to bits.

Anyway, Zack and I always work really closely creatively on set, and, knowing my slight (read:  massive) obsession with dance movies, he let me direct the dance battle scene that played out with the Steez product!

I repeat:  I got to direct a dance battle scene!!!!!

So, I can officially cross "Direct a Dance Battle" off my bucket list.  (FYI: "Direct Dance Battle" is just below "Win Oscar" and just above "Get on SNL."  It combines my two favorite arts - Dance and Movies - in a battle, which is just good drama.   In fact, I pitch dance movies, typically climaxing in a dance battle in almost every meeting.  Studio Executive:  So what are you working on?  What do you want to do next?  Me:  A dance movie.  I was thinking like a Die Hard 5, the dance version.  Studio Executive:  Hahahah!  You're funny.  Me:  No, seriously.)

Here's some picks from the fun, freezing night of dancing it out...

Zack telling me not to eff it all up.

T and B together on set... again.  Now we just need to get
Luna working in Art Department and we'll be good.

Movie Magic Makers.

Mike Carrasco of ABDC working it. 

In closing, what I learned from this experience is that most things can and should be resolved through dance battles.   Family problems?  Dance battle.  Impending Foreclosure?  Bank v. Home Owner dance battle.   Conflict in the Middle East?  All together now... Israeli-Palestinian DANCE BATTLE.

Dance Battle for life.

Amazing things

Hey Party People!

I hope you are all recovering from your weekend of Halloween revelry.  I worked all weekend, finishing up a draft of an overdue script so that I could take time off on Monday, when our fairy tale family traipsed around as a: The Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, and the cutest little piggy you've ever seen!

In other, more relevant news, yesterday I found out that I've been accepted to the WGA's Writer/Director Mentorship program - which is so so exciting!  They are trying to foster the relationship between the WGA and the DGA as well as get writers to be more involved in their projects... I'll let you know as soon as I can who my amazing mentor is going to be.

But for now - I have to keep this short. I have a pitch at Nickelodeon this morning -- basically me talking for twenty minutes straight -- and I have to practice so I don't get in there and make a complete ass of myself:

Executive, "Hey, so tell me about this story!"

Me, "Uhhh.... uhhh.... uhhhh."

Ah, the glitz, the glamour... Cross some fingers for me, huh?

PS:  If you didn't see it - here's the pic of me and Brett in the Sunday edition of the Ventura County Star!!!!  Read the article HERE.

Me. 8 1/2 months pregnant after a 12 hour shoot day, looking exhausted -
Brett, looking fabulous. 

PSS: Lake Effect lovers - Keep posting pics of you with your copies on the facebook page!  And if you've watched and liked the movie, please find somewhere on line to review it!  Amazon or netflix would be GREAT!

Most creative pic so far, thanks PK and Optimus Prime.